The MAIL utility allows you to: o send mail to other users o read your mail o reply to your mail o file your mail o forward your mail o print your mail o delete your mail To determine if you have any mail type: MAIL ? or MAIL ?/BRIEF This command tells you the amount of mail you have in your incoming mailbag. You should put this command in your LOGIN.CMD file. Be sure and read help for NOTIFY before editing LOGIN.CMD. To read your mail type: MAIL and then type again each time mail prompts. Additional information is available for the following topics. BACK CURRENT DELETE DIRECTORY EXIT FILE FORWARD NEXT NOTIFY POSTOFFICE PRINT READ REPLY SEND QUIT UNDELETE HELP may also be typed as a command to MAIL. 2 BACK B(ack) Displays the previous message, the message before the current mesage. If this command is given when there is no current message, it will display the last message in the file. 2 CURRENT C(urrent) Displays the current message. This is useful when you need to reread a message that has just been displayed. 2 DELETE D(elete) [n] Deletes the current (last read) message from your list of mail messages. You may optionally specify a message number to be deleted. Specifying an explicit number DOES NOT change the number of the current message. The message is not actually deleted from the file until you either exit mail or read another message file. Therefore, if you accidently delete a message, you can recover it by aborting MAIL with the QUIT command. 2 DIRECTORY DI(rectory) [file-name] Lists a summary of your mail messages. The message number, sender's name, date, and subject of each of your mail messages is displayed. If no file name is specified, a directory of the current message file is displayed. If a file name is specified, the current message file is closed, deleting any messages which were marked for delete. The file specified becomes your current file. A special file name "POSTOFFICE" may be specified. "POSTOFFICE" refers to the special message file into which the system deposits your mail. Typing "DIR POSTOFFICE" will delete messages which have been marked for delete and bring any new mail which arrived while you were reading into the current message file. These files are named filename.MAI and are the format produced by the FILE command, which is similar to a regular text file. 2 EXIT E(xit) Exits the MAIL program. You may also exit by typing CTRL/Z. 2 FILE F(ile) Adds a copy of the current message to the named messagefile. The file-name parameter and consists of up to 9 alpha-numeric characters in length. If this parameter is not specified, a default of MAIL.MAI will be used. If the file does not exist, it is created. Format: FILE file-name Files are named file-name.MAI and have a format that is similar to normal source/text files. The FILE command does not automatically delete the message from the current file. This allows you to retain it in the current file or file it in another message file. 2 FORWARD FO(rward) Sends a copy of the current (last read) message to another user or users. You will be prompted, just as in the SEND command, for the names of the user(s) to whom you wish to forward the message. 2 NEXT N(ext) Displays the NEXT mail message in your current message file. 2 NOTIFY If you wish to be notified automatically whenever new mail has arrived from another user, use the MCR command: MAIL ? NOTIFY Once you have issued this command, if new mail arrives from another user, the message *** New Mail on NODENM from NODE::USERNAME will be printed on your terminal. You should place this command in your LOGIN.CMD file. You may turn off notification at any time by typing the command: MAIL ? NONOTIFY Note: Mail Notification is not controlled by the SET NOBROADCAST command. These commands allow it to be controlled separately. Note for privileged users: The MAIL ? NOTIFY command must be issued with your protection UIC set to the UIC in which you receive mail. The NONOTIFY command is effective regardless of your current UIC setting. 2 POSTOFFICE The POSTOFFICE is a specially formatted file located on the system library disk into which your new, incoming mail is deposited. When you start up the mail program, the POSTOFFICE is your current message file. You may treat it like any other message file, using any of the commands of the mail system. Mail left at the POSTOFFICE will be seen each time you "visit" the POST- OFFICE. A recommended procedure is to file messages received at the POSTOFFICE into various message files, named by subject matter. Mail which does not fall into any obvious category, or needs to be saved only a few days may be filed in the default file MAIL.MAI by typing simply F and deleted from the POSTOFFICE with the D(elete) command. You may wish to keep newly received mail in the POSTOFFICE if it requires current visibility, and file it elsewhere when its priority has been lowered. For example, you may lower its priority one step by moving it to MAIL.MAI and further lower it by filing it in a topic-oriented file. Typing "DIR POSTOFFICE" will delete messages which have been marked for delete and bring any new mail which arrived while you were reading into the current message file. 2 PRINT P(rint) Queues the current (last read) message for printing. The message(s) are not actually released to the print queue until MAIL is exited so that multiple messages will be concatenated into one print job. Format PRINT Note: this command is currently only available on systems which have automatic output spooling for device LP0:. Users of systems without this option may FILE messages in a file (e.g. FILE LP.LST) and then print LP.LST after exiting from mail. 2 READ REA(d) Displays your mail messages. The first time you enter the command, your oldest mail message will be displayed. Each time you enter it, the next message will be displayed. Format READ [message-number] The message's relative number in the message file is listed next to the file name when you read your mail. To read a specific message, enter its number on the READ command. If the specified number is greater than the number of messages, the last (newest) message will be displayed. If you receive new mail while you are reading mail, just enter DIR POSTOFFICE to bring it into your current mail file. Pressing just (or just a number) performs the same as the READ command. 2 REPLY R(eply) Sends a reply to the sender of the current (last read) message. If a file-spec is specified on the REPLY command, that file will be sent to the sender. If no file-spec is specified, you will be prompted for the text of your reply. This command is similar to the SEND command, except that the user to send to is the user that sent the current message. Format REPLY [file-spec] 2 SEND S(end) Sends mail to another user or users. You will be prompted for the names of the user(s) to send to and the subject of the mail - To: username[,username] Subj: [text] If a file-spec is specified on the SEND command, that file will be sent to the user(s). If no file is specified, you will be prompted for the text of the mail. Mail can be sent to users that are on other systems by prefixing the user name with a node name, for example - nodename::username. Format SEND [file-spec] Additional information is available via SEND's own HELP command. Note: The SEND command is valid from MCR as well as from within MAIL. 2 QUIT Q(uit) Allows you to exit from the Mail program without deleting the messages you previously marked to be deleted. 2 UNDELETE UND(elete) [n] Restores the current (last read) message if it has been deleted. You may optionally specify a message number to be restored. Specifying an explicit number DOES NOT change the number of the current message.